The LiveWire mobile is a 32′ long air-ride trailer, with a machine room, control room, and maintenance room. The truck is equipped for full 5.1 surround sound monitoring. One side expands to give an additional four feet of width, resulting in a 16′ x 12′ control room, designed by Pilchner-Schoustal, one of North America’s top studio design firms. It’s rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the world’s best sounding control rooms on wheels.

Drag your cursor on the photo below for a 360 degree tour of the control room in the LiveWire mobile.

In 2008 we installed a new SSL C200 digital console in the mobile. (It is the same model as the one that is used on the Stephen Colbert Show) The SSL has 128 inputs on banks of 32 faders, 5.1 surround sound bussing, and snapshot recall of all parameters. 96 SSL mic pre’s feed the console via a 1000′ fibre optic snake, with 32 additional ATI Paragon mic pre’s available, fed by a 52 channel snake.

We can provide up to 128 tracks of Protools HD backed up by 128 tracks of Tascam X-48 wav files on hard drives.

A closed circuit intercom and camera system ensures good communication between the audio mobile, the performance area, and the video control room, and our time code analyzer helps guarantee perfect sync between sound and picture. Our iclock master clock keeps sending wordclock to the recorders even if its input is disconnected, so we never lose clock reference.

In 2020, we added four speakers on the ceiling and an SPL MC-16 speaker controller to allow us to monitor in Dolby Atmos 5.1.4 format.

And it isn’t just for recording live performances. When not “on the road”, the LiveWire mobile is a world class SSL 5.1 mix facility, either at our downtown Toronto facility or at the location of your choice. We can park in your driveway so you can do your final Atmos mix at home, in a Pilchner-Schoustal control room using the Dolby Atmos production suite.

The truck has recorded concerts in New York City, Nashville, Quebec, Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa, Cleveland, The Maritimes, Vancouver, Detroit, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, and even Daytona Beach, Florida. We’ll go anywhere in North America to record your project!

TRUCK EQUIPMENT:

• The Truck:

2002 Great Dane 31 foot eighteen-wheeler.   Control room has 14’x4′ expanding section.
Machine room and control room have separate air conditioning systems. The mobile requires
60 amps of 220 volt, single phase power on Camlok series 1016 connectors, or bare wire tails.
We also carry adapters for Camlok series 1018 connectors.
Parking Requirements:  32′ x 15′

• Console:

SSL C200 digital console with 96 inputs, full 5.1 bussing, snapshot recall.
96 SSL Remote-controlled mic preamps
MADI interface to video mobile (coax or optical)

• Recorders:   

Primary Multitrack: 96 track Protools HDX system V2021.6.0 with Sync I/O,
MIDI I/O, Apple Mac Pro 2 x 3.5 Ghz dual core Intel Xeon with 32 gb RAM, 2666Mhz, DDR4, OS 11.6 Big Sur
interfaced to console via MADI

Backup Multitrack:  2 x 48 track Tascam X48 hard disc recorders
HHB CDR-822 cd recorder/duplicator
360 Systems Short/cut Hard Disc sfx and stereo track playback unit on request
360 Systems TCR-8 eight-channel Hard Disc SFX and 5.1 track Playback Unit or Protools system on request
DVD/CD  high-speed duplicator tower – makes 5 copies simultaneously

• Monitors:

Genelec 1031a 5.1 system with 1092A subwoofer,

4 Genelec 1029a speakers on the ceiling for Dolby Atmos 5.1.4

Auratones with BGW Power Amp

7 pairs of AKG K240 headphones available on request
96 pairs of Stanton DJ-Pro single-cup headphones available on request

SPL MC16 Monitor Controller for Dolby Atmos monitoring

tc electronic Clarity V Loudness Meter

DK Phase Meter

• Video:      

Panasonic Colour Camera with remote pan/tilt/zoom/focus
TCL 4K 43″ Monitor with HD-SDI input, Kramer HD line amp
Dynatel video sync generator/video da, Brainstorm Timecode Destripalyzer
Digidesign SMPTE Generator/Reader
Denon DN500 DVD player

• Cabling:   

96 channel, 1,000 foot fibre optic microphone snake with 16 additional return lines.

500′ fibre optic extender

• Splitters:

3 way Jensen transformer-isolated mic splitter.  Ground lift switch on each input.
Up to 106 channels available on request.

• Intercom: 

Clear-Com 2 channel master station, 3 Beyer dual muff headsets with beltpacks
Talkback speaker on stage, independent of performer’s monitor system.
RTS 2 channel station, Clear-Com biscuit box
2 x Fostex 6301B Powered Speakers

• Outboard Gear:

Urei 1176 Blackface Compressor                              tc electronic D2 Digital Delay
Quantec Room Simulator                                        Lexicon 224 XL Digital Reverb
tc electronic M2000 Studio Processor                       Bricasti M7 Digital Reverb
Eventide H3500 Ultra Harmonizer                             Yamaha D1500 Digital Delay
Teletronix LA-2a Tube Compressor                           2 x dbx 160vu compressors
Fatso Jr. Analog Tape Simulator                                dbx 162VU Stereo Compressor
Roland 550 Digital Noise Eliminator                           Antares ATR-1 Pitch Corrector
Eventide H3000SE Ultra Harmonizer                         Sanyo FM Tuner
2 x Pultec EQP-1A Tube Equalizers                          Crane Song STC-8 Stereo Compressor
Radial SW-8 eight channel switch                             Mutec iclock master clock
Tree Audio Branch tube mic preamp                         McCurdy ATS-100 Stereo VU/PPM Meter
Klark-Teknik DN300 Stereo Graphic EQ                    BSS DPR-404 4 channel De-esser

• Microphones and DI’s:    

4 x AKG 414                      4 x  Shure SM58                         4 x Sennheiser 421
4 x AKG 451                      5 x Shure SM57                          2 x Sennheiser 441
4 x AKG 535                      1 x Sony MS-5 Stereo                1 x Shure SM82 (line level)
1 x AKG D112                     1 x ATM 825 Stereo                   2 x Amcron SP-12 PZM
2 x AKG CK9 Shotgun       2 x ATM Lavaliers                      2 x ATM 1031b Shotgun
2 x AKG CK8 Shotgun       2 x Countryman Lavaliers          2 x Podium mics
2 x AKG 452                      2 x Sennheiser 416 Shotgun      1 x Sennheiser 418 Stereo Shotgun
6 x Rode NT1-A                 1 x Rode NT4 Stereo                  2 x Octava MK-012A
6 x Passive DI’s                  4 x Active DI’s                             1 x Demeter Tube DI